Taiwan’s native bird population has stabilized and grown steadily over the past decade, the Taiwan Breeding Bird Survey showed, with researchers attributing the positive results to conservation efforts.
The survey — a collaboration of the Council of Agriculture’s Endemic Species Research Institute (ESRI), National Taiwan University’s Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and the Taiwan Wild Bird Federation, along with volunteers and amateur scientists — monitored birds during breeding seasons from 2011 to 2019, ESRI Director Yang Jia-dong (楊嘉棟) said on Monday.
The survey found that the “individual population trajectories for 87 species did not show a significant change,” a paper published in last month’s edition of the journal Ecological Indicators showed.
Photo: Yang Yuan-ting, Taipei Times
The project’s two main indicators, “forest birds” and “farmland birds,” showed gradual increases during the nine-year survey, Yang said.
“We have seen gradual growth of Taiwan’s bird species in both the forest and farmland habitats over the past decade,” but there was a significant decline for two endemic species: the Taiwan bamboo partridge and the gray-cheeked fulvetta, said ESRI researcher Lin Da-li (林大利), one of the paper’s authors.
The dwindling population of the Taiwan bamboo partridge is likely due to poaching and trapping with snare nets, while the decline of gray-cheeked fulvettas could be due to expanded farming and related activities, and loss of habitat, Lin said.
Although the overall survey results are good news for conservationists, Lin said he is concerned about declines among six bird species: the tree sparrow; the light-vented bulbul; vinous throated parrotbill; the black drongo; the long-tailed shrike; and the plumbeous water redstart bird.
“The data showed a steady decline for birds that commonly breed in grassland or near rivers, along with carnivorous birds, and could be due to habitat destruction and too much human construction, such as concrete and artificial barriers in grasslands or on the banks of rivers and streams,” Lin said.
A surge in foreign invasive species and a rise in feral dogs and cats in the birds’ habitats are also contributing to population declines, he said.
Taiwan is only the second country in Asia, after India, to publish national monitoring data on bird species.
“We hope these biodiversity indices can inform government agencies when formulating policy, help national development planning, and promote organic farming and other environmentally friendly practices,” Lin said.
Taiwanese non-governmental organizations participated in last year’s UN Biodiversity Conference in Montreal, where member countries adopted 23 goals to achieve by 2030, including restoring 30 percent of terrestrial and marine ecosystems, developing stronger conservation policies and reversing a decline in biodiversity, Yang said.
The Taiwan bird survey included bird-monitoring programs conducted by 311 volunteers, with a focus on 107 regularly occurring breeding bird species in Taiwan — 100 native species and seven introduced species — with 52 in the forest, 20 on farmland and 28 found in both habitats, he said.
STRONG RELATIONSHIPS: China would not blockade Taiwan, because President Xi respects him, and Russia would not have invaded if he were president, he said Former US president and the Republican candidate in next month’s presidential election Donald Trump said he would impose additional tariffs on China if China were to “go into Taiwan,” the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported. “I would say: If you go into Taiwan, I’m sorry to do this, I’m going to tax you, at 150 percent to 200 percent,” Trump was quoted as saying in an interview with the WSJ published on Friday. Asked if he would use military force against a blockade on Taiwan by China, Trump said it would not come to that because Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) respected
The Taipei Department of Transportation discouraged YouBike 2.0E users from taking them on long-distance trips after a Taipei city councilor said that riders often use the new electric bike, YouBike 2.0E, to climb Yangmingshan (陽明山). Taipei earlier this year began offering the first 30 minutes of YouBike 2.0 rentals for free, with Taipei and New Taipei offering the YouBike 2.0E on Aug. 30 to encourage rider usage. For YouBike 2.0, the rate is NT$10 per 30 minutes within the first four hours, NT$20 per 30 minutes for five to eight hours and NT$40 per 30 minutes after eight hours. Meanwhile, for e-bikes,
RESOURCE RICH: Taiwan is located in the Pacific Ring of Fire and has up to 30 gigawatts of the potential energy, of which 10 gigawatts could be economically viable Academia Sinica and CPC Corp yesterday began drilling the nation’s first deep geothermal well in Yilan County’s Yuanshan Township (員山). The 4km-deep well is expected to take 18 months to complete and has an estimated investment of NT$337 million (US$10.54 million), Academia Sinica President James Liao (廖俊智) said. “While Taiwan has up to 30 gigawatts of potential deep geothermal energy, with an estimated 10 gigawatts being economically viable, only by digging wells can we determine the actual amount of commercially viable geothermal energy,” Liao said at the project’s opening ceremony. Data collected during and after the excavation process would be used for future
HACKERS’ MARKET: Chat logs about Taiwan and documents outlining ways to take over online accounts were leaked from a company that sells data from hacks Taiwanese cybersecurity specialists found 577 leaked documents which show that the Chinese Communist Party is engaging in “cognitive warfare” against Taiwan through cyberattacks and disinformation campaigns, a documentary released last month by Japanese public broadcaster NHK showed. The filmmakers behind Tracking China’s Leaked Documents said they spent six months visiting seven countries, including Taiwan, where they interviewed members of TeamT5, a malware research and cybersecurity firm, which found the leaked documents. TeamT5 said they discovered a string of mysterious URLs on the social media platform X, which they suspected could be accounts created by hackers or people who leaked data, which led